


Whistle or Sing

by Dendritic_Trees, pinkcupboardwitch



Series: Seal Song [2]
Category: Shades of Magic - V. E. Schwab
Genre: Alternate Universe, Coup d'état, Gen, Selkies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-11-07 07:53:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17956580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dendritic_Trees/pseuds/Dendritic_Trees, https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinkcupboardwitch/pseuds/pinkcupboardwitch
Summary: Whether Holland will kill a king for Ros Vortalis is an easy question. Whether he will take his coat off is a hard one.





	Whistle or Sing

Taking the London throne is a year and a half of Vortalis spinning tales to him sitting on docks and ice-floes, some kind of spy work that takes place too far from shore for Holland to hear or care about, and a few minutes in the cavernous hall where the London palace meets the water.

Then Vortalis has the castle and Holland, for the first time, has a human’s blood in his mouth. He’s not, in the main displeased with this. Gorst is a better meal than he was a king.

He hasn’t felt like singing in a long time but he’s singing now. Whether specially for Vortalis, or just London in general he hasn’t quite decided yet. And the castle is a wonderful place for singing. Whoever had built this place had built it for a selkie and it carries his voice better than even the best water.

By the time he’d finished the rest of the population of the castle have come down to the water to greet the new king. He watched Vor disperse them to various tasks almost all the way submerged.

Vortalis had insisted it was virtually his castle. That the prep work was already done. But if he was wrong, well, they were right by the water, and no matter who’s castle it is, in the water he will always win.

“They sold you short,” Vortalis said, once everyone else has gone, “I was told you whistled. I could hear that in the throne room - at the other end of the palace.”

There’s a silence broken only by waves lapping on the marble floor.

“I didn’t mean that you should stop,” Vor said. “But you know, if you have anything else to say, that’s good too.”

Very few people were willing to be sung to for as long as Holland wants to sing. Vortalis was an easy man to love and Holland would have loved him just for that. But the unspoken meaning is clear. Holland had come partly out of the water, he knew Vortalis liked to be able to see him when they talk. But he slid all the way back in to think.

Vor was king now and he would be spending his time away from the water, as a person surrounded by people. And Holland hasn’t been a person in a space built only for people since Talya.

Ros Vortalis was worth killing a king for. But was speaking to him in a human’s voice worth all the bad things that happened on land?

 

“Vor wait,” he called.

He couldn’t run after him yet, he’d got all these limbs to manage, not to mention his coat. There’s a trick to getting it arranged and he was more than a decade out of practice. Everything was bigger and he’d forgotten that human eyes had all those colours and it was all a little overwhelming.

“Wait,” he said again, its as much louder as he can manage.

Vor strolled back over to him and looked him up and down. The change in his size is so much that he feels like Vor is looming over him, even though he’s still actually smaller than Holland, even in his small human form.

“You clean up better than I thought you would,” he said, after a minute and then he stuck his hand out “Ros Vortalis,” he said.

Holland already knew his name. Vor already knew Holland’s name. He’d used it many times.

“Would it kill you to let me have my moment?” Vor asked.

_Oh._

He took Vor’s hand, he was reasonably sure he remembered that correctly, “Holland Vosijk,” he said.

“Pleased to meet you,” said Vor, which he presumably thought was a good joke.

“I’ve known you for a year and a half,” said Holland, “and at no point have you been funny.”

Vor laughed and slung an arm around his shoulders, “we can work on the handshake later,” he said.

And Holland walked with him, away from the water and towards London.

**Author's Note:**

> Leopard Seal Fact Hour:
> 
> [Here's a clip of Holland's singing.](https://dosits.org/galleries/audio-gallery/marine-mammals/pinnipeds/leopard-seal/) Personally I'd enjoy two hours of that. And yes, the sound really does carry for miles in the water.


End file.
